Development of a Flex Sensor Glove

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siz Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, University of Gaziantep,Turkey.

Abstract
A flex sensor glove is designed and constructed to translate hand gestures into words.
The system is trained with a small sample of gestures based on the American Sign
Language (ASL). A gesture is translated into the written word and displayed on a
computer screen or LCD display.
American Sign Language Alphabet

Signal Flow Chart

Glove

Flex
Sensor

Flex
Sensor
Circuit

MCU

LCD

Main Components
Flex Sensor, op. amp, PIC,
microcontroller, LCD, battery, glove.

Main board and Glove

A flex sensor is placed on each finger in order to
convert finger positions into electric signals. The
signals are processed by the circuit and PIC
program, which constitute the translator part of the
prototype. The combination of the processed signals
gives a letter that the gesture corresponds to in ASL.
Conclusion
The flex sensor glove prototype successfully reproduces a small sample of ASL gestures after
careful training. Further improvements to the hardware and software would allow for training of
the remaining ASL characters yielding a system that would be useful for hearing- and speechimpairment people.
References:
http://www.cs.sfu.ca/~amulder/personal/vmi/PCVR.html
How to build an instrumented glove based on the Power glove flex sensors.
http://www.ee.ualberta.ca/~rchapman/Cmpe401/lab1.html
Lab for Computer Interfacing course at the University of Alberta using a flex sensor.
http://www.robotmag.com/robotics/h-bend-sensors.html
"Playing with Bend Sensors" by Marvin Green in Robot Science & Technology online supplement.